Introduction:

In this article we are going to see how to use an Aggregate (COUNT DISTINCT) data flow transformation control in SSIS packaging. With this function operation we can get a Count on the number of distinct rows which are unique and not null and to get a result in a desired format. Let's jump into to the example on how to use this control in real time.

Steps:

Follow steps 1 to 3 on my first article to open the BIDS project and select the right project to work on an integration services project. Once the project is created, we will see how to use an aggregate control for getting the count of the distinct rows of a particular column or a list of columns.

Here we will see the COUNT DISTINCT operation in the aggregate control. I have added an OLEDB connection which fetches the data from the database upon which we are going to do get the Count of the distinct number of rows and then pass it to a file destination as shown in the screen below:

Here the last 2 controls shows a red mark inside the control indicating that the control is not configured. We step forward and configure the same. Now double click on the Aggregate function; that will open a pop-up window as shown in the screen below:

Here we are selecting the columns on which we need a distinct Count as shown in the screen. And after selecting the numbers of columns for getting the distinct count now click on the OK button to get configured. Now configure the Flat File Destination as shown in the screen below.

Once everything is configured your screen will look as shown in the screen below

Now Hit F5 to run the application and show the output as shown in the screen below:

Here the numbers of rows are indicated at the bottom of the each control as shown in the above screen. And finally the results (Distinct COUNT of rows) are loaded to the flat file destination which looks like below:

Conclusion:

So in this article we have seen how to get a distinct not null count of a number of rows using an Aggregate function transformation in data flow tab.